Istanbul

9/29

Prior to arriving here in Istanbul, we spent a couple days in Montenegro.  We are glad we went there but did not find it as appealing as Croatia.  The Roman ruins there were very interesting and not as crowded as in Croatia.  Dale, though, liked the Vernac wine better than Croatia's Plavic Mali, the grandfather of zinfandel.  The Vernac tasted much more like zin than Plavic and it would fool a lot of people in a blind tasting of zins.

We arrived in Istanbul on the afternoon of the 26th and found a very bustling city.  My preconceived fear soon vanished  as Dale and I roamed the streets around our hotel that first evening.  We ate dinner at a local hangout and found the food delicious, although we were only able to point to the dishes we wanted.  Most of the Turks we have come into contact with speak varying levels of English.  The next day we took the tram, which conveniently stopped across the street from our hotel, to the Old City and had a private tour of the Hagia Sophia.  This landmark was first a Byzantine church built by Constantine.  Centuries later it was taken over by the Turks and converted into a mosque.  Fortunately, instead of destroying all the beautiful mosaics in the changeover, they plastered over them.  They moved the altar and general orientation from facing East to face toward Mecca.  When Ataturk came into power post WW I he aimed to secularize the country, separating the Muslim religion from the power of government.  He said the Blue Mosque close-by was sufficient for Muslim worship in that area and he converted the Hagia Sophia to a museum.  In doing so, much of the plaster covering the mosaics was removed showing many beautiful depictions of the Madonna and Child.

Ataturk, Dale explains, waged a successful civil war after the Ottoman Empire was destroyed in WW I and broke all tradition by founding a Republic!  He then secularized the country and gave birth to the modern Turkish state.  The hotel we danced at is "Republic" in Turkish and is filled with pictures and news stories about Ataturk (see  below).

Since Friday is a day of Muslim worship, we were not able to get into the Blue Mosque until the afternoon.  They maintain a very strict code for entrance: removal of shoes, head covering for women and a head covering cloth used to cover men in shorts.  Dale and I looked so cute :).

Friday night Dale and I went to Taskim Square to a hotel restaurant frequented by Ataturk.  There was a table of about 20 young adults next to us and as the live entertainment began they all simultaneously began clapping and singing.  The rest of the evening went that way with the whole restaurant chiming in.  The young people included us old fogies and soon we were rocking with them.  They were taking our pictures and we seemed quite the novelty to them!  I shot a video of them and will try to attach it here.

 These women are definitely not returning to wearing the burka!!

I am a people watcher and have observed several things.  First of all, the majority of Turks are in Western attire: jeans, shirts and sneakers, as well as nicer regular clothes.  We've seen very few women in burkas, but several in some form of head covering with Western dress otherwise.  Women do not follow behind men but walk together conversing like a couple.  We've seen parents very devoted and loving to their children.  It all seems very normal!

Our hotel looks out on a beautiful mosque and I find the "call to prayer" 5 times a day interesting.  In our country church bells are deemed "too noisy" or "too offensive in their religiosity".  As our Hagia Sophia tour guide told us, people are busy and may forget the prayer times so this call (amplified by loud speakers in every mosque throughout every neighborhood) is a little, loud reminder and people can stop what they are doing a say a little prayer.  Imagine that!  Dale says he has not yet seen anyone do this.

The Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire after the split and then the fall of Rome.  It is a monstrous structure where new emperors were crowned over several hundreds of years.  It staggers one when attempting to imagine this period of time and its history.  Over hundreds of years, the people here knew only this empire.

Today is Sunday.  While planning this trip, I spent a lot of time searching for a church for Mass.  I found an Armenian Catholic church that wasn't too far from our hotel and google mapped it.  Last night Dale and I set out to find it so I would know where to go and what time Mass was.  There was no church there.  So, we continued to walk (Dale has such a good sense of direction and thought he could figure it out).  Finally, we asked a Turk with very good English and he gave us very specific directions to where the church was.  We followed these directions, which were very accurate, and walked a fair distance.  No church.  So, while I feel bad about not attending Mass today, I think I have given it my best "travel intent".  I might add that Dale is always so helpful in finding Catholic Churches/Masses for me when we travel.

We are feeling kind of lazy today and decided to hang out in our beautiful hotel.  Maybe stroll the neighborhood later.  Tuesday am we have a 2 hour cab ride to the old airport where we will catch a flight to Munich to Palermo, Sicily for the last 2 weeks of our trip.  It is going very fast!

We will attempt to attach of bunch of pictures nearby, but we have had little luck with this so far.  If anyone is reading this please "give us a single ping" (as in The Hunt for Red October).  Now if you have not seen this movie, RENT IT! says Dale.

Dale and Peggy

 

P.S. Please feel free to comment on the blog site.

9/22 Well, we were enticed by our German/Bosnian friends to join them yesterday evening for a Fish BBQ -- how could we pass that up?? We watched as Svenga (wife of German,Walter) stood in the Sea cleaning the fish and throwing their entrails to the waiting seagulls. Svlonko, the proprietor of our apartment, BBQ'd the fish that were marinating in rosemary, garlic and olive oil -- the fish was succulent! We spent the night and hated to leave -- we both love Klek!! Oh, I went to Mass at the local church and it lasted all of 22 minutes. Everyone got up and left immediately but I decided to stay and say the rosary. After the first decade I was kicked out and the church was locked up! (I read in my guide book that Croatia was 88% Catholic...). Driving from Klek to Dubrovnik we passed through a small part of Bosnia. Both arriving through the border and leaving through the border we were waved through with barely a glance at us, let alone our passports. Guess Americans are not viewed as terrorists. We came back to the place where we stayed our first 2 nights in Croatia and our apartment is on the lower level, right by the Sea. Dale and I just had a little pate, cheese, figs and wine and he is now taking a nap before we decide what to do the rest of the day. We are getting lazy and just want to soak up the beautiful views that we never tire of. Dale has explained how to post pictures, but I am struggling with this. I will ask him to do it.

9/20 Happy Birthday, Devin!! Yesterday we drove through Split and continued on to Trogir, a quaint little island on the Dalmatian Coast. Most of the old historic center is encircled by a wall, and while we've seen a few of these fortified towns now, we found this one particularly interesting. There were less crowds and many quiet, hidden dining places and we had a lovely dinner in one of them. Today, we toured the ancient city of Split and really enjoyed it. We started our tour of the Diocletian Palace by visiting the Museum which gave a great overview of the architecture and history of this complex. I found it interesting (and ironic) that Diocletian, who was a persecutor of Christians, had his crypt dug up and removed and a Church was built in its place--the Cathedral of St. Dominius! Diocletian got his due... We saw the Baptistry of St. John (a bishop of Split from the 8th century). I entered the Cathedral and found a magnificent altar. I was busy taking pictures when another visitor told me no pictures were allowed. But then, I saw this hexagonal pulpit accessed by many spiral stairs and decided to sneak a picture. The curator got in my face and said "are you nuts, are you crazy, are you sick, should I call a doctor to care of your sick head...? but, I got the picture :) Dale wandered around and found the architecture extremely interesting as well as the original Roman floors with some original mosaics in them. We then drove back to Klek, where we spent the last 2 days prior to the above trip. It was fun seeing the people who befriended us. Dale sat up on the deck with a beer and his German friend and watched the day fade away and turn to pastel evening. He and his German friend are having coffee in the morning and then will swim across the bay and back, they say. It is wondrously beautiful here! Tomorrow we will head south toward Dubrovnik. We only have 5 days left in Croatia.

9/19 We loved Klek and decided to stay another night. The German couple next door befriended us and asked us to dinner that night. Then the owner of our apartment insisted that they would do the "traditional Croatian dinner" for the German friends and us -- what wonderful, kind people! The dinner was veal and potatoes, cooked over cedar wood in a smokehouse. So Dale and his friends sat around drinking beer and supervising the Croatian chef.... Delicious!! We all sat on their deck, enjoying good food, cherry scnapps, grappa, wines, the beautiful sea view, and each other. Then,suddenly, from a step slope close by, the full moon starting appearing. It stopped the dinner for 5 minutes as we all watched as it quickly revealed itself in full glory reflecting on the sea. I will attempt to upload some pictures, as our devices seem to be getting along with each other... Our next destination is Split, unless we find some enchanting place to stop before that.

A fond Hello to all friends and family. We have had computer problems in posting to the blog, but a quick shot is that we are enjoying ourselves immensely, the scenery is the most beautiful coastline we have ever seen, Dubrovnik was amazing but crowded with tourists who come in cruise ships by the thousands, and the prices everywhere are reasonable. 9/12 After many hours of flying and waiting in airports, we arrived in Dubrovnik in amazingly good shape. A late dinner (we closed the restaurant at midnight after only napping on the plane the night before) and a few good hours of sleep and we were good to go. 9/13. This first day we went to Dubrovnik's Old Town and walked the fortified wall (avoiding the bus loads of tour people). These walls were constructed in the 10th century with modifications in the 13th century (they built things to last!). The views from this wall are spectacular -- beautiful pictures in books but not like being here. If I hadn't accidentally deleted the pictures from my camera I would attach them here :). 9/14. Today is Ted's birthday -- Happy Birthday, Ted!! On our way to Orebic on the Peljesic Peninsula, we went through Trstenik where Mike Grgrich has his winery (google his name and find out his notoriety). We tasted the 2 varietals of the area: Popic (white) and Pavlic Mali (red). For you Marinites, there was a picture of Grgich and Heidi Kuhn of Roots for Peace in the tasting room. We never made it to Orebic because the village of Trstenik had the most inviting harbor that beckoned Dale for a swim. The room and view from our balcony were wonderful.

9/15. We thought about staying another night in Trstenik but decided to move on. First, though, I attended Mass in this cute little church. It was quite interesting listening to Mass in Croatian -- traveling would be a perfect reason for the Latin Mass. sorry, can't link picture now --0 will work on that later). We finally made it to Orebic, where we were to have an apartment and harvest dinner with an American winemaker who now has a winery here. Charitably speaking, the apartment wasn't very nice and harvest isn't happening until next week, so no dinner. So, we opted out and got a lovely apartment by the Sea. The proprietor brought us 2 giant glasses of red wine and Dale and I got some deli food for a dinner on our deck. Later, there was a big thunder/lightening storm. 9/16. We ferried over (with our car) to the Korcuna Island. We toured the city of Korcuna and then we did what we both love doing: head off to the little villages!! The drive was spectacular (I need to work on my adjectives) -- lush green landscape and the most deep blue water. We landed in Prisba and got a nice room, on the water, of course, with the restaurant downstairs, giving Dale a little respite from driving. 9/17&18. We started driving for Split, but stopped on the coast to lay over for the night. A German fellow directed us to an apartment for rent next door to him. We engaged in a lot of conversation with him and his German friends. This morning they invited us over for coffee. Three of them and Dale, then walked around the bay and then swam back across it to the house. More conversation followed and we decided to stay another night here in Klek. Then they invited us for dinner this evening -- "a traditional German dinner" -- what a treat. (They all speak good English).